


Snapshots

by conquistadormatador



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Mild Sexual Content, language warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:00:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29282643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conquistadormatador/pseuds/conquistadormatador
Summary: Moments during The Stolen Century right after Lup and Barry get together.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup
Kudos: 5





	Snapshots

Lup sighed. This letter wasn’t going well - her emotions were too _much_ still.

She tipped and tapped a bad rhythm against the desk with her pen - and too much hesitation.  
  
She choked on her heart a bit.   
  
How was she supposed to tell him how much she missed him without making him feel bad?  
  
 _“My dearest Barold,"_ she tried.  
  
A dumb gasp of emotion escaped her lips, and she caught it before it could go too far to be questioned, because...

No one really knew about them, yet, really.   
  
How was she supposed to break it to her chosen family when they were dealing with bigger issues?  
  
Dumbstruck, lovesick as she was - she felt maybe love and bonds were the answers all along to defeating The Hunger...and nothing was going to stop her from figuring out if that was incorrect.  
  
 _"God dammit,"_ she quietly conceded; her brain trying to salvage everything.

He loved her, she knew. She had to _try._

"Holy shit this is garbage," she admitted out loud, and laughed into the palm of her hand. After reconciliation, she flourished her fingertips into the air, willing her jean jacket sleeves back towards her elbows, and continued onto the damned, dumb parchment:  
 _  
"It has been far too long since I’ve gazed upon your gorgeous face._ _My heart has not known peace since."  
_  
"Ugh, yes," she said aloud, her fingers buzzing on the keys where she stopped, giving herself room and patience. She shuddered honestly. _  
  
_ _“I tremble...every waking second in this room, clutching at memories of how you looked, trying to remember your scent."_

No going back now. Might as well be shitty on main: _  
  
"I feel empty inside, and nothing brings me peace now."  
  
_ Her bangs fell into her line of sight, and she pushed them out of the way, cursing her salon decisions.  
  
He had sworn he loved them.  
  
 _“Darling, please know that my heart aches not knowing when I will hear your voice again. I…  
  
_ _“I love you, desperately, ardently, and forever.  
  
_ _“For keeps,  
_ _“Lulu”  
  
_ Another heavy sigh escaped her lips as she hastily signed her name onto the paper.  
  
She then took it, crumpled it up into a ball, and spun around in her office chair.  
  
“HEY BEAR,” she yelled, cocked her arm back, and threw it at her partner, who had been tirelessly focused on his work across the room.  
  
“Wh-“ was the only sound that got out of him before it smacked into his face, the paper ball falling onto his foot and rolling off.  
  
“As _much_ as I love staring at that rockin’ booty in those amazing jeans, I miss your face and I’m sick of this shit. Let’s have dinner and bang it out already!” she insisted, giggling.  
  
He chuckled, and bent over to pick up the ball of paper. “Littering is a fine, Miss Lup. I’m gonna have to take you in for this one, I’m afraid.”  
  
She hopped off the chair, arms behind her back, skipping towards him. “Oh _nooooo!_ What are you going to do to me? Are you going to handcuff me and _strip search me?”_ she toyed.  
  
He sat the ball of paper on the railing of the dry erase board, turned to her, and wrapped his arms around her once she had made her way right up against his chest. He smiled, and planted a simple kiss on her nose.

“No, darling. I’m not going to do any of that to you,” he said as he hugged her tighter, slightly swaying her back and forth.

“Why notttt?” she whined, putting on her best pouty face at him.  
  
His hands met her shoulders, and gripped her almost as if to anchor her to the world they were on before he absolutely rocked it with his words:

“Because as much as you love me, I’m going to eat the cheese you’ve been saving for yourself-”

And then he immediately bolted out of the lab towards the kitchen.

“YOU- YOU _FUCKHAT!"_ she yelled.  
  
He cackled as he sprinted.

\---

They had set up deck chairs on the grass. There was no logical reason for them to be inside the ship when the nighttime weather was so beautiful and their surroundings so safe.

He'd been hinting that there was something they really needed to talk about. Excited, she had picked out an extra beautiful dress, hoping it would make him look at her more.

He sat his measuring cup full of wine (Taako was on dish duty, and hadn’t gotten to it yet that day) on the ground, and got out of his chair.

She looked at him, admiring how gorgeous he was in the poncho he had stolen from her room earlier that evening. Clearly their dress codes were uneven, but that didn't matter to her - all that mattered was that she was with him.

He looked back at her, and smiled. His brown hair was a bit unkempt from the wind, but she loved it when a single lock fell onto his forehead. It made her want to touch him and push it back into place. Any excuse to feel him was wonderful and necessary.

“I have some words for you,” he announced. His hazel eyes narrowed slightly, and a confident smile broke out on his face.

“Oh,” she responded quietly, pleased, “what are they?” She had been anticipating this, and she sipped her wine slowly.

He spun back around and lifted his left hand to gesture to the black, starless sky - save for the moon.

“The night is dark,” he said in a silly, slurred voice, “like the sun’s gone.”

She choked on her wine laughing. _"Oh no, not an attempt at wooing me with prose again,"_ she thought.

Both of his hands went to his hips, and he continued: “In the trees…there’s branches.” He looked back and pointed at the trees, making sure that Lup was actually paying attention. She definitely was, as hard as it was to swallow the wine still in her mouth from her laughter.

“ _Uhhhhh_ , the SUN…isn’t here...anymore,” and he pointed in the same direction the moon: “it...set over there.”

The wine went straight into her hand as she erupted into howling laughter.

“The stars in the sky…” he said, as he pointed repeatedly with both hands at nothing, “are like pinpoints…of stars…”

She was doubled over and clutching at her waist now.

“…In the _sky.”_

“Bear _-“_

“The leaves!” he interrupted, his voice insisting at the dirt patch in the ground ahead of them, “from the trees are on the ground…and the ground, it’s- it’s still on the ground, really.”

“ _BEAR-“_

 _“POEEETRRRYYYY!”_ he yelled, raising both of his fists into the air, and shook them at the moon.

This was all such a mess, and it was making them both so happy. She cackled, and playfully chastised, “You’ve had HALF _a_ glass of wine-“

“Half a measuring cup, darling," he said as he shook a finger at no one in particular, "and I just needed to punctuate the moment before I asked you a very important question.”

She sat up a little, invested.

“What’s that, fancy face?”

He made his way over to her, got down on one knee, and took her left hand in his. She knew exactly what he was going to say next:

“Why have you never supported my deep, undying love of the theater?” he dramatically wailed.

“ _YEP,_ I KNEW it, I KNEW that’s what you were going to say, you fucking god damn- god dammit,” she laughed as she slapped herself in the face, and shook off some tears from crying with laughter.

Satisfied, he took his place in the chair next to her once more, grabbed his measuring cup off the ground, and took her hand in his. He sipped his wine victoriously.

“This...this tastes like ass,” he concluded.

“Of course it does - I stole it from Merle’s stash, not Dav’s.”

“Aw beans, I shoulda guessed,” he said, gulping the rest down to expedite the process.

She did the same.

\---

“Would you still love me if-“

“Barry, _yes._ I’ll always love you, god dammit. But go ahead, what name would you want instead?”

He put a fist against his throat, cleared it with gusto, and asked, “Would you still love me if my name was Doctor Dingus McDongus?”

She set down the spatula. The grilled cheese sizzled in the pan, begging for her attention; but it was elsewhere, knowing that he was just trying to make her smile.

“Why in actual hell would you-“

“But _would you still love me?”_ he interrupted.

She flipped the sandwich, and then turned to look at him.

“The fact that you changed your name from Sildar Hallwinter to Barry J. Bluejeans means that I’m gonna love you, no matter how many times you ask this same question. And are you just jealous because I’m making a sandwich and you can’t have a bite, darling?”

“I just want you to grill me a chee-hee-heese,” he said as he drooped onto the kitchen island, his voice muffled by his head against his arm.

\---

"What if there was a year where we could only communicate via text?" he asked.

She didn't dare entertain the thought.

He shut the microwave door, a perfect lock of hair falling into forehead, making him unnecessarily cool-looking. She couldn't celebrate that shit.

"Please don't do that to me," she said, as she attempted to ignore everything about his hotness, failing.

He stood there, also failing. "But darling, what if-"  
  
"DON'T," she warned with her dominant pointer finger, giggling, as she walked away to use the brachiosaurus crayon he had given her for Valentine's Day.

He loved her, his dumb hair in his eyes, and his heart swelling with affection.

\---

They had the ship to themselves.

With that piece of information, all hope of his concentration on his work was completely shot.

He leaned out of his bedroom door slightly, only to find her walking down the hallway, her nose in a book as she made her way from her room to the kitchen for more snacks.

He watched as she pulled out her hair tie, letting her long auburn hair fall past her shoulders, her dark brown eyes focused intently only on the words she was reading, trusting her feet to know where to go.

The shirt she was wearing was riding up, and he could see a bit of her waist.

That was enough for him.

He waited until she passed him, oblivious to his presence, and then he softly called to her:

“Lulu...wait.”

Her heart caught in her throat and she felt a fire start in her stomach just with the sound of his voice.  
  
Frozen in place, she accidentally snapped her book shut.  
  
"Bear, what are you-"  
  
Before she could get the rest of her sentence out, her back was already against the wall, his lips hungrily on hers.

She dropped her book, shocked, and melted into him. The surprise of his presence and his warm body pressed up against her absolutely set her ablaze.

They immediately started maneuvering each others’ clothes, but things started to move from steamy to awkward very quickly.

“Wait, just a sec - I really want these socks off-“

“Not a problem, we can’t leave our clothes here in case someone gets back early-“

“They make this look so _easy_ in the movies-“

So in the end, they threw in the towel and ate pasta instead, swearing they’d try again later that evening.

(They did.)

**Author's Note:**

> I keep meaning to write actually steamy things from Lup's point of view, and then end up having too much fun writing lighthearted things/very Barry focused things instead? Whoops.
> 
> Be safe out there.


End file.
